The goal of not requiring excessive space for equipment has become important for designers in the computer industry. The demands of many users for many pieces of peripheral equipment require that such equipment not overwhelm the limited work space available in most laboratories and offices.
One aspect of this space limitation has long been recognized by computer designers as the “footprint” limitation, that is, how much floor, counter or desk horizontal area the unit requires. Compactness and a vertical arrangement of elements in a unit contribute to the unit being smaller in its horizontal width and depth, and hence, to having a smaller footprint.
Another aspect of the space limitation is how much exterior, vertical display area is available conveniently to the user, in that the front, vertical surface of a unit or its modular counterpart is most conveniently viewed by the user. Utilizing units with smaller front, vertical surface areas results in the information from each of many peripheral units being conveniently visually perceived, or results in several modular units being combinable into a single housing with desirable dimensions. In oil refineries and industrial power plants, for example, this space limitation is addressed by localized control panels and rooms that display information, gathered from remote sensors and instruments, in banks or groupings of read-outs, lights, and/or strip-charts. For computer equipment designers, this local display of remote unit information is usually not available, however, so the vertical surface limitation, coined by these inventors as the “faceprint” limitation, refers to how much vertical area the unit requires, including surface area for housing of interior elements and also area for information display.
One example of a front-surface-saving display is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,176 (Smith, et al.), which discloses a front panel display for a computer. The front panel has a pivotal display which swings out of the way like a door to provide access to the internal components of the computer for replacement and/or repair. This way, the computer can have the display as well as the access to its internals, and not require excessive space, for example, in a rack utilized to house the computer and other equipment associated with it.
There is still a need for display systems that minimize the surface area required for user viewing. Also, there is a need for a non-paper system of non-permanent labeling for computer data containers such as tape cassettes or cartridges, which is updatable by the user. The present invention, in its various embodiments, satisfies all or many of these needs.